Protected's recent activity
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Comment on Jet Lag Season 18: Stateside Scramble | Trailer in ~hobbies
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Comment on What is your eleventh favorite video game? in ~games
Protected LinkOh, come on! I could sort Steam by playtime, let's see... Starbound?? Perhaps, but this is a poor list, as the top includes such "videogames" as... OVR Advanced Settings (#1)... Tabletop...Oh, come on!
I could sort Steam by playtime, let's see... Starbound?? Perhaps, but this is a poor list, as the top includes such "videogames" as... OVR Advanced Settings (#1)... Tabletop Simulator... RAD Closed Beta... VRChat... Maybe playtime isn't a very good indicator of quality anyway?
In the other thread I claimed I could easily choose 20 favorite games. If all of that counts as my #1 game, then what if I check position #30? Can of Wormholes, pretty good actually. Very representative of the kind of semi-obscure game that, without being my favorite, I rather liked (100%ed) and is really well designed too.
What if I check #11 on GOG? My GOG catalogue has much more consistent quality (and videogame-ness). Here the result is Pyre, which feels a lot more right. It's sandwiched between Death's Door and Hob, both of which would also be good candidates.
There's also my internal categorization system on Steam. For all that I've recently argued on Tildes against the utility of 5 star ratings, I hypocritically keep my own 5 tier ranking for every game I play, which isn't biased against shorter games. Assuming 5 stars accounts for all of the "20 favorites", what if I pick something I assigned 4 stars to? There are many, but A Highland Song feels right. Or maybe Haste.
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Comment on Xbox is planning to shutter Peabody Award-winning Compulsion Games (We Happy Few, South of Midnight) in ~games
Protected Link ParentIt's my hope and belief that Double Fine can survive something like this. They have a core of people who have been working together for a very long time, highly skilled industry veterans who have...It's my hope and belief that Double Fine can survive something like this. They have a core of people who have been working together for a very long time, highly skilled industry veterans who have created many amazing games. And they've been through lean times before, for years at a time! No matter what happens to the companies and trademarks, if they want to keep working together, I'm sure they will.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected Link ParentClick to expand spoiler. I have read about how Renzo Nero thought movies should be art that exists for themselves, projected in empty movie theaters untainted by the expectations of human eyes, or...it wasn't built for you.
Click to expand spoiler.
I have read about how Renzo Nero thought movies should be art that exists for themselves, projected in empty movie theaters untainted by the expectations of human eyes, or something. Was this game designed by Renzo Nero too? Is this... meta?
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected Link ParentWould you be willing to go into further detail regarding this philosophical decision? As a player, I feel like (so far) these controls are bad design. I keep accidentally going to the status...Would you be willing to go into further detail regarding this philosophical decision? As a player, I feel like (so far) these controls are bad design. I keep accidentally going to the status window when I'm trying to interact with something and going into menus when I'm trying to go back. That's a non negligible amount of unnecessary interruptions and associated frustration. Brief, but very much noticeable.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected Link ParentWere you involved with the development of this game?Were you involved with the development of this game?
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected LinkI started Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, a recommendation from my brother. It's an investigative game! Caught me a little by surprise coming from him, especially as this game is not all that casual...I started Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, a recommendation from my brother. It's an investigative game! Caught me a little by surprise coming from him, especially as this game is not all that casual (though still not as hard as the heavyweights of the genre).
The visuals are very stylish, almost entirely in black and white, and cherry red highlights. Vaguely (I don't want to spoil anything for you) the protagonist is a woman called to a small, remote hotel by an italian filmmaker with an eccentric, disturbing personality. This hotel is bristling with padlocked doors, cryptic messages, all sorts of clues and - probably - ghosts.
Like in any good Myst-like, you must read in-game books (booklets, I guess). Old timey computers are available in-game, and do double duty by both letting you save and load (no autosave!) and read floppy disks you find in the hotel. At one point you also acquire a totally-not-a-Game-Boy-please-don't-sue-us. Fortunately, the protagonist has not only a vast inventory capacity, but a "photographic memory" - all the clues you find are carefully catalogued and acessible from this menu no matter where you are (phew!) There's also a detailed "task list" (quest log) containing anything even remotely mysterious you have encountered. Good stuff! The puzzles also seem fine. No one has made me play "simon says" so far, but I have had to do math.
The controls are weird and infuriating. The same action button is used for interacting with things and people, opening your status window and navigating menus, depending on where you are and which direction you're facing. There is no "back" button; instead you have to select a "return" menu option in whichever window you have open if you wish to return to the game, and these are not consistently designed or placed. Maybe the game was made for iOS? I didn't look into it. The status window has various stats which may or may not come into play later. I think I will be able to make coffee at some point.
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Comment on What internet discussion sites remain? in ~tech
Protected Link ParentI don't know if I'd have enought time to participate much but you never know! I just think it still sounds similar enough to Tildes at the moment. On Tildes when I open a comment section all...I don't know if I'd have enought time to participate much but you never know! I just think it still sounds similar enough to Tildes at the moment. On Tildes when I open a comment section all branches without new posts that I've read before are collapsed by default (this behavior is configurable). Maybe you can just add a setting for people to have a fixed depth beyond which branches are collapsed by default even when unread? That would solve your problem with keeping comments closer to the root more visible.
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Comment on What internet discussion sites remain? in ~tech
Protected Link ParentWere you ever on Slashdot in the early years? That sounds similar to Slashdot's system. I thought about that when writing my earlier response but I figured in 2026 this would encourage a lot of AI...Voting requires a reason
Were you ever on Slashdot in the early years? That sounds similar to Slashdot's system.
Sort longer comments to the top
I thought about that when writing my earlier response but I figured in 2026 this would encourage a lot of AI slop as a means of manipulating the system.
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Comment on Tildes Survey #8: What is your favorite video game? (Results) in ~talk
Protected Link ParentYeah, I got it earlier, from the original Gametap (the other massively important game I played on Gametap was Myst Online, aka Uru, etc.) I believe this pioneering, definitely-before-its-time "pay...Yeah, I got it earlier, from the original Gametap (the other massively important game I played on Gametap was Myst Online, aka Uru, etc.) I believe this pioneering, definitely-before-its-time "pay a monthly subscription for many games" service, operated by TBS, was only available in North America. Fortunately they weren't geoblocking, so I could ask a friend to subscribe on my behalf.
Of the nearly 1000 games they had (which included Sega's entire classic catalogue) if I remember correctly Psychonauts was the #1 top rated, which is why I played it.
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Comment on What internet discussion sites remain? in ~tech
Protected Link ParentI don't subscribe to the "upvote for like/correct" mindset, I'm more of an old-fashioned "upvote for good contribution to the discussion". I like systems that don't have symmetrical downvotes...I don't subscribe to the "upvote for like/correct" mindset, I'm more of an old-fashioned "upvote for good contribution to the discussion". I like systems that don't have symmetrical downvotes because they are more harmful when misused, effectively functioning as a "censorship" of sorts that mobs use to bury contributions they dislike.
Upvotes on the other hand can reduce noise and facilitate and encourage dialogue. In an ideal world, people comment if and only if they have something to add to the discussion, including opposing viewpoints, and contributions judged valuable are voted up.
Obviously that's not quite what happens even here. But I think Tildes does a good job of mitigating the issues reddit has with upvotes by removing bad incentives such as karma counters and using labels for comment demotion.
If you aren't using votes for comments, how do you solve the sorting problem? The better the culture is, the less it matters, regardless of the design of the platform. But assuming the culture is bad, is there a sorting system that can't be exploited? Because let me tell you, no matter where you are, whatever gets seen first gets seen more, and whatever gets seen more will have compounding approval.
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Comment on What internet discussion sites remain? in ~tech
Protected Link ParentBut you function on a platform that has openly shown their hostility to people like you. You don't ultimately have any control over your discourse, nor do your users. You are tolerated because (I...But you function on a platform that has openly shown their hostility to people like you. You don't ultimately have any control over your discourse, nor do your users. You are tolerated because (I suspect) you and your users generate profitable data for reddit and monetizable engagement.
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Comment on What internet discussion sites remain? in ~tech
Protected Link ParentI suppose you could fork the tildes code base and implement your ideas about moderation transparency and such.I suppose you could fork the tildes code base and implement your ideas about moderation transparency and such.
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Comment on Google Chrome to fully remove legacy support for manifest v2 in ~tech
Protected Link ParentFirefox for Android has uBlock origin though?Firefox for Android has uBlock origin though?
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Comment on What's a game you're dying to play that doesn't exist? in ~games
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Comment on Jet Lag Season 18: Stateside Scramble | Trailer in ~hobbies
Protected Link ParentClick to expand spoiler. Fun start! I wasn't expecting Hot Ones express. Looks like the timing for winning that first challenge got pretty close, and the river challenge segment was pretty funny....Click to expand spoiler.
Fun start! I wasn't expecting Hot Ones express. Looks like the timing for winning that first challenge got pretty close, and the river challenge segment was pretty funny.
Amy saying some of those people are very generous (...) cracked me up.
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Comment on Jet Lag Season 18: Stateside Scramble | Trailer in ~hobbies
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Comment on What internet discussion sites remain? in ~tech
Protected Link ParentYou already know this, but I'll spell it out: The culture of reddit is shot, because power moderators act like they own subreddits and the company also acts like it owns subreddits, in a different...You already know this, but I'll spell it out: The culture of reddit is shot, because power moderators act like they own subreddits and the company also acts like it owns subreddits, in a different but equally harmful way.
I'm generally strongly in favor of subreddits and moderation, for reasons that may change depending on the subject/community (for example, the reason why a politics debate community requires strong moderation is different from the reason a historian Q&A community requires strong moderation, despite the subjects seeming close to each other). But no matter what, there must be a culture of community self-ownership that permeates the platform at every level, by which I mean, the community is its members. A moderator must protect civility, enforce platform rules and guide how the community interfaces with the platform in order to keep the community's space on that platform in comformity with the function of that space - at least until such a time as that community, as a whole, decide that they want that function to evolve. A moderator can also help the community organize to make that kind of decision. In summary, a moderator should be someone who has volunteered to serve their community. They do not own it, and shouldn't be responsible for biasing its content beyond community expectations, or be at odds with its members, including well-intentioned new arrivals.
On reddit, I moderate my town's subreddit. It's not a very active subreddit. In the past, I have been approached by someone who wanted to take it over. I said I'd be happy to accept help with moderation, but they said they needed to own the subreddit before they were willing to risk investing their time (paraphrased). No! Wrong!
I looked into their profile at the time - they founded and ran multiple subreddits which they flooded with the same submissions, including what ended up becoming my country's most progressive and most xenophobic subreddits - yes, they're run by the same person. They frequently insult each other. Nobody seems to notice. Now, here you might dubiously praise Mr. Shallnotbenamed for eventually taking a step back and letting communities decide on their own function, as long as you think xenophobia is OK.
I think that's where reddit themselves come into the equation.
A few years ago (as we all know) reddit became very hostile toward their own users. Many communities asserted their self-ownership, and reddit's response was to massively override community decisions according to their own desires. Reddit has since functioned like other social networks in that they treat their users as information flows, to be mined and enmeshed with advertising and monetization. At no level is user ownership of their own discourse respected. If reddit were only doing this in order to enforce something like the original reddiquette, or more generally to limit certain harmful discourse such as xenophobia, then some degree of direct interference would be expected and desirable (like on tildes!) However, it doesn't look to me like that's when they intervene. They seem to intervene largely to course correct when anything happens that, directly or indirectly, threatens their profitability.
As an aside, reddit introduced at one point in the past the ability for users to post in their own profiles, effectively turning them into one-person subreddits. I think that's a positive feature, because that's the one place where you can reasonably be expected to bias content and dictate rules. If people want to do those things, they can do it there, and at least there's a clear separation of the information on the platform with clear expectations on both sides. Keep that!
So, given all this, here are some ideas and questions that might be worth thinking about while trying to make reddit-but-less-shitty:
- You mention over-moderation but (I was just writing this the other day!) the internet is much, much bigger than it used to be back in the day, and it's full of algorithms and bots deliberately trying to make people mad, plus zealots and demagogues that make people mad without even trying. I think moderation is necessary in order to keep things civil and function-compliant. Can you explain your ideas on the subject?
- What's your plan for keeping your platform financially sustainable without infringing on user and community self-ownership?
- You mention echo chambers. How might your platform protect itself against harmful cultural changes, such as a perversion of communities into echo chambers? If you expect to manually interfere, where do you draw the line? If you expect to remove communities wholesale, how do you keep from becoming an incubator of harmful communities (such that they form in your platform and go on to congregate elsewhere after removal)?
- How might communities on your platform protect themselves against "power moderators" - that is, whoever has additional control over the discourse overstepping their role and acting in accordance with their own ego? Could the software account for that?
- How can you protect and preserve self-ownership against you, should your incentives change in the future?
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Comment on What's a game you're dying to play that doesn't exist? in ~games
Protected LinkI want first person 3D PCVR platformers with good graphics.I want first person 3D PCVR platformers with good graphics.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected Link ParentIf you pray for my intercession, I show up with an overly verbose lecture on time management! (Spoilers: I'm always sacrificing something else's backlog...) In all seriousness, there were more...If you pray for my intercession, I show up with an overly verbose lecture on time management!
(Spoilers: I'm always sacrificing something else's backlog...)
In all seriousness, there were more than 20 upcoming games in this SGF week's showcases that peaked my interest (and I only watched about half of the showcases). For the first time ever I went through my list and just... removed stuff. It's getting hard to stay on top of it with so many games being made.
Ep. 2 - Stateside Scramble